In our review of the first Springer edition, Mark Bollman described this book as an excellent way of learning about the "reach" of number theory into other areas of mathematics, and said that for the right reader the rewards to be found in it are immense.

In the preface to this new edition, the author indicates that there have been a few changes in the exposition and a few references added. The main change, however, seems to be that the book is now in one volume and is part of Springer's Universitext series. For those who want to go beyond the standard material in elementary number theory, here is an excellent panorama of the subject.